I have to say it is pretty exciting when you watch a client do something amazing. I do get like an old mother hen that is just so proud of my clients.
Just this month, Gutter-Vac was named #2 overall franchise in the TopFranchise awards! Well deserved and the best thing about this award is that the results are come to by the franchisees who are independently surveyed.
Warren Ballantyne, Franchisor at Gutter-Vac, had entered these awards to get honest feedback from the franchisees through a 3rd party survey so that he could work on improving the business. In fact, I got to sit in and participate on the meeting that we had with Ian (from 10,000 feet, the company that surveys the franchisees) where we went through every single result and what that meant compared to the industry, what that meant for Gutter-Vac and what we could do to use that result and make Gutter-Vac even better.
I’m sharing this with you because not only is it a chance for me to publicly congratulate Warren, Anne, the head office team and all the franchisees at Gutter-Vac, I also saw it as a great opportunity to show you what leaders in the industry do.
Even though Gutter-Vac was named number 2 overall, Warren was still leading the pack to find ways to improve, ways to be better, ways to help his franchisees more. Add to this that Gutter-Vac has been going for 20 years! Yes, 20 years and Warren is still looking for ways to grow and improve. I wonder how many franchisees out there are working off previous successes and not looking to improve, continuing to do the work and find ways to do even better.
This is what true leaders do. They know there is always more to learn, ways to improve and that they don’t have all the answers. Warren is a prime example of this.
He has been on the committee for the Franchise Council of Australia Queensland Chapter for years and in the last year has been the president of the Queensland Chapter and on the board for the FCA nationally. Why? Because he wanted to be more involved in the franchise industry, to share his knowledge and to learn from others. Warren is a busy man, just like any other franchisor, but he always makes time for those who he could in some way help. This is what leaders do.
I do a lot of work in franchising and it is always funny to me that when people talk about franchises they always talk about the ‘big guns’ – those really large groups or the franchises that you need to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars to join. Yet, the smaller, family owned franchise groups often go under the radar. Gutter-Vac is one of those groups. But, when you take a closer look at these smaller to medium sized groups, that are not necessarily in the ‘sexy franchise’ category, they are really good, solid franchises that are really allowing and supporting their franchisees to have really profitable businesses that give them the time to live their lives.
What’s that old saying – the fish rots from the head down? Well, this is the opposite case – a franchise group is succeeding because of the leadership. If the leader of a franchise group is not showing honesty, integrity, grit and determination, work ethic and a genuine desire to really help and support their franchisees and the franchise industry, then you will not find a successful group in the long term.
Warren Ballantyne and Gutter-Vac to me are really leading the pack into this new era of business and franchising.
Congratulations Gutter-Vac! So proud of you all!
PS. Warren will be joining us at my next workshop in February 2016 for a Q&A session that will be invaluable to any franchisor! For more information click here.